Now that the U.S. has finally committed to electrifying cars and trucks, there’s been a lot of handwringing over where they’ll charge.
The Biden administration just approved all 50 states’ plans for where to install DC fast chargers, and while those plans will help fill massive infrastructure gaps, those chargers won’t be nearly enough to handle all the miles that EVs will rack up. Fortunately, they won’t have to — a lot of EV charging is done while cars are parked at home.
But that does raise another problem — millions of households will be installing EV chargers in the coming years. Electricians are likely to be stretched thin, which could make it difficult for homeowners to book their services.
A new startup hopes to ease the burden on both sides by creating a platform to make installing a charger as easy for homeowners as ordering new furniture.
Kopperfield today closed a $5 million seed round, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The round was co-led by General Catalyst and Lachy Groom, with participation from Giant Ventures, MCJ Collective, Shopify founder Tobi Lütke, Coinbase board member Gokul Rajaram, Arcadia Power founder Kiran Bhatraju, First Round Capital partner Cristina Cordova and other angel investors.
Founders Mark Wong and Jesse Vaughan came up with the idea for Kopperfield following their own struggles to electrify their homes.
“We tried a bunch of different things,” Wong told TechCrunch, including improving home energy efficiency and providing people with audits of their home’s performance.
“But what we found was that people wanted to buy EVs, heat pumps, induction stoves, and there was a lot of friction around those things. And so even really well-intentioned and climate-motivated people were just not doing the things that were necessary.”
Wong previously worked at Stripe as head of product for the Connect platform, where he helped build a series of tools that streamlined and automated various business processes related to payments. The experience there was formative, he said, helping him to understand how even a series of small hurdles can feel insurmountable to customers.
“I’m a true believer in the power of friction reduction,” he said.
“We think we can move electrical upgrades away from a ‘home remodel’ kind of mentality and into an online-purchase regime,” he said. “We think we can bring instant pricing, online scheduling, and incentives and rebates, weaving all those things together into a smooth online purchase. They just push a button and get the upgrade.”
Kopperfield founders Jesse Vaughan and Mark Wong. Image Credits: Kopperfield
By specializing in EV charger installations, Kopperfield hopes to differentiate itself from apps like Thumbtack and sites like Angi (formerly Angie’s List). Those sites help facilitate discovery and communications between homeowners and contractors, but you still have to research prospective contractors, gather quotes and follow up on scheduling and installation. On the flip side, electricians have to coordinate advertising, communications, scheduling and billing.
“Most of it is not billable time or valuable time,” Wong said.
Kopperfield aims to eliminate friction on both sides of the transaction. Consumers only have to describe the work they need to get done to receive an estimate, book a time for the installation and pay for it. Electricians essentially just pick available jobs, while Kopperfield handles scheduling, communications and billing.
The company is starting with EV chargers, but envisions expanding to cover other electrification projects, including heat pumps, induction stoves and more. Altogether, Vaughan said the total addressable market for home electrification could hit $150 billion per year by the end of the decade.
For now, though, he said they’re going to use the seed funding to grow the team and expand geographically.
“We launched this pilot in Seattle just a few months ago and have seen great uptake and adoption from our partners,” Vaughan said. “Those positive signs have encouraged us to expand into new markets. We’re really excited to roll out in two new metro areas later this year.”